At least 39 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in a fire at a hospital in South Korea.
The blaze is thought to have started in the emergency room at Sejong Hospital in the south-eastern city of Miryang.
About 200 patients were inside the building and an adjoining nursing home at the time.
It is South Korea’s deadliest fire in almost a decade and the toll is expected to rise with several of the injured in critical condition.
Firefighters told the Yonhap news agency that the victims appeared to have died from smoke inhalation. Hospital medical staff, including a doctor and a nurse, are among the victims.
Authorities have given varying death tolls, with fire officials confirming 39 victims to the BBC, but police announcing 41 dead.
Fire chief Choi Man-woo told reporters the cause of the fire was not yet known.
“The victims came both from the hospital and the nursing home. Some died on their way to another hospital,” news agency AFP quoted him as saying.
The hospital building did not have any fire sprinklers installed, local media said.
Under current laws, the building was not required to have fire sprinklers, but was in the process of fitting sprinklers in its adjoining nursing home.
A new law that is due to be rolled out by 30 June would have made sprinklers compulsory for nursing homes.
Source: BBC